Texas Renaissance Festival hosting auditions in May

Published 11:00 pm, Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Photo: Steven David

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Jeff Baldwin, entertainment director at the Texas Renaissance Festival, conducts auditions for the Texas Renaissance Festival. This year’s audition sessions are May 7 and May 14. Call 1-800-458-3435 Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or email producer@texrenfest.com to audition. less

Jeff Baldwin, entertainment director at the Texas Renaissance Festival, conducts auditions for the Texas Renaissance Festival. This year’s audition sessions are May 7 and May 14. Call 1-800-458-3435 Monday to ... more

Photo: Steven David

Texas Renaissance Festival hosting auditions in May

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Calling all actors, entertainers, performers and specialty acts. Find out what it takes to join the cast of the Texas Renaissance Festival.

The nation’s largest and most acclaimed Renaissance theme park is holding auditions for its 2016 Season on Saturday, May 7, and Saturday, May 14, in Todd Mission.

More than 4,000 actors, artisans and merchants will bring the festival’s 55-acre New Market Village to life over eight exciting themed weekends from Saturday, Oct. 8, through Nov. 27..

“We will select outgoing and multitalented individuals to be part of our performance company this season,” said Jeffrey L. Baldwin, entertainment director at the Texas Renaissance Festival. “These are the characters who make up our royal courts and other unique characters inside New Market Village, as well as specialty acts,” said Jeff Baldwin.

With an eye for talent, Baldwin, who will celebrate 39 years with the Festival and 20 years as the head of the Festival’s performance company, has a way of extracting the best out of auditioning hopefuls.

“Auditions include two warm-up group exercises that we call ‘Impulse Circle’ and ‘Remember My Name’. This is how we find out who the real extraverts and entertainers are,” said Baldwin. “I can usually tell within seconds of the exercise if a person is going to be successful.”

After 20 years of working with performers at the Texas Renaissance Festival, Baldwin can still be impressed.

“Each year, someone surprises me. This is an exciting time as we pick the people who play a fun, engaging, interactive role in a performance that goes on for eight weekends in a row,” he said.

Performers must schedule an appointment in order to audition. Call 1-800-458-3435 Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or email producer@texrenfest.com.